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The Blackhawk War BY HENRY LITTLE, 1875
The Dutchman said that "if his foresight was as good as his hindsight, he would do many things different from what he then did. " Now, after those men had marched down to the St. Jo. and then back to Prairie Ronde, they had excellent opportunities for learning whether their foresight or their hindsight was their safest guide.
In proving addition we run the column down, and then up, for the purpose of ascertaining whether there are any mistakes, and so by the same simple method of proof, they, after running that column of soldiers down to the St. Jo. and then back again to Prairie Ronde, might possibly discover whether they had made any mistake. We have read of an old German officer, who much admired correctness in military operations. He said that: "In his youth we used to march and counter march all summer without gaining or losing a single square league. And then we went into winter quarters. At last came Napoleon, that ignorant, reckless, hot-headed, young upstart, who was spoiling the science of war, and uprooting all those old, well established usages and customs, by flying about from Boulogne to Ulm, and from Ulm to the middle of Moravia, and fighting battles in December. The whole system of his tactics is monstrously incorrect. "
Between the above two systems, so extremely divergent in their character, the army of the peninsula chose that of the German. I have heard of the
little mouse that "run up the clock, " and thereby gained a high and proud elevation, from whence he could behold all the inmates of the room,
Michigan
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